sort_text_array_characters

The function sort_text_array_characters sorts the elements of a text array and stores the sorted elements in a second array.

sort_text_array_characters ( input;output;number
of elements to sort )

The function sort_text_array_characters is of type BOOL.

The function has three parameters:

1. input; ARRAY of type TEXT. This array contains the elements that must be sorted.
2. output; ARRAY of type TEXT. This array receives the sorted elements.
3. number of elements to sort; NUMBER. This is the number of elements in the array that must be sorted starting from the first element. This can either be a number or a NUMBER variable or expression.

The function sort_text_array_characters returns TRUE if the array was sorted successfully, and FALSE in one of the following cases:

• If number of elements to sort is negative or 0.
• If the function sort_text_array_characters fails, the output array is unmodified. The input array is not modified by the function. The output array receives the sorted values from the input array.
• If the output array is larger than the number of sorted elements, those elements outside the sorted range are left unmodified. The function sort_text_array_characters performs a culture-neutral alphabetical sort on the text elements using Unicode codepoints.

An example is provided here.

ARRAY TEXT input [4]
ARRAY TEXT output[4]
NUMBER i

ASSIGN input[1] := "c"		 
ASSIGN input[2] := "d"
ASSIGN input[3] := "a"
ASSIGN input[4] := "b"

IF sort_text_array_characters (input; output; 4) THEN
  FOR i FROM 1 UPTO 4
DO
#
@(i) @(output[i])
#
OD
ELSE
#
Failed to sort the input.
#
  STOP
FI

The type BOOL of the sort_text_array_characters function is used to implement error handling. If the sort succeeds, the return value of the function is TRUE, the IF statement becomes TRUE, and the THEN part is executed. If the return is FALSE, the ELSE part of the IF statement is executed.